Last Days
by To Be Announced
Summary: Some new powerful I-Jin are forming a devious plot to kill the populus of earth, and its up to Yomiko and her new partner to put an end to this once and for all.
1. The Maze

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for Avalanche and Rail and I'm not getting paid for this. So, let's get on with the story: 

"...Joker..." spoke Mr. Drake. He was in a pitch-black room, surrounded by silence. "...Joker!" Drake shouted into the headpiece. He was answered by a high-pitched buzz, and Joker was not responding. "Must be some kind of interference," he muttered to himself. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter. The small flame illuminated the area to reveal several bodies strewn across a cryptic room. Drake searched the bodies and found some ammo, a roll of tape, and a flashlight. He flicked the flashlight on and reloaded his rifle. He soon found the door and headed out into a labyrinth of hallways. He checked his scanner to try and see a digital map of the area, but just like the headpiece, there was some kind of interference jamming the signal. "...Paper, you there?" Drake spoke into the headpiece. His efforts produced the same results as before. He cursed in annoyance as he taped the flashlight to the barrel of his rifle and began to walk down hallways.

It seemed to Drake as if he had been wandering for days when he finally heard a noise down the next hallway. He ran quickly to the source of the noise only to find that it had been a rat. He noticed that he was standing in a work cubical so he sat down behind the desk to rest for a moment. He was slipping into slumber when he heard voices down the hall. He dove out into the middle of the hall and aimed his rifle, but he saw nothing. He heard faint breathing behind him. He spun around and fired blindly.

When the commotion had ended Drake caught sight of something very strange just before the flashlight went out. "Oh shit, this is definitely not my lucky day," he sighed as he felt his way over to the bear he had shot down. What a bear was doing in the ruins of an underground office building was just as much a mystery to him as anyone else. He gave it a kick, and it was without a doubt dead. He once again pulled out the lighter and once again the small flame revealed dead bodies. "Hmm, bear had trainers..." Drake mumbled to himself.

He checked the bodies, but neither one had a flashlight or batteries. He did find however, dusty old blueprints to the building and one of the bodies had a heat vision scope on their rifle. He removed the scope and attached it to his own rifle, "It ain't much, but it'll help," he said to himself. He held the lighter next to the blueprints, but they didn't help much because he didn't know where he was to start with.

He took the blueprints back to his cubical and sat down to study them. He heard another noise and spun around to see the rat scurry into the wall. "What the..?" Drake went over to examine the wall behind the desk. He gave it a push, and the entire wall collapsed, revealing a secret passage of sorts. He checked the blueprints and saw that exactly one cubical had two entrances on opposite sides. He rolled the blueprints up and stuck them in his back pocket.

He raised his rifle to his chin, looking through the scope to pick out heat signatures, and stalked down the tunnel until it split into two paths. He quickly took out his lighter and the blueprints and checked them. He picked out the way he needed to go and proceeded down the right hand tunnel. After a while he heard voices and saw a faint light down the tunnel a ways. He huddled up against the wall, raised his rifle, and waited. As soon as the targets came into view he fired two expertly placed shots and the bodies dropped. The light had shattered, so he used the batteries to give his own flashlight power.

He decided to try the headpiece once again. "Paper, Joker, anyone copy?" he asked. He could hear faint voices this time but there was still too much interference to pick out what they were saying. "At least I'm closer," he grumbled as he flicked on the flashlight and continued down the tunnel.

The rest of the trip back to the surface had few disturbances. Drake managed to salvage enough batteries from his victims to keep his flashlight running, and as he neared the surface the tunnel became less dark. He finally reached a large set of steps leading up to the surface, and he emerged to find a man sitting on a tree stump. The man glanced over his shoulder at Drake with an evil grin before leaping into the trees and disappearing. Drake was in disbelief, but he was brought back into reality by the sound of voices on his headpiece.

"Mr. Drake...Mr. Drake are you there?" Mr. Joker's voice said over the headpiece.

"Yeah, I'm here," Drake answered.

"Did you complete the mission?" Joker asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you encounter any difficulties?"

"No."

"Good, Miss Paper has completed her mission as well. You are to rendezvous at the clearing near the old drainage pipe in fifteen minutes," Joker instructed.

"I think I'm already there," Drake stated as he turned back to look at the large pipe he had climbed out of.

"Excellent, stand by until Miss Paper arrives."

"Roger." Drake sat on the very same stump as the man from earlier and waited until Yomiko came stumbling out into the clearing dragging her large suitcase. "It's about time you got here. You got the book?"

"Yes," Yomiko answered, holding up a tattered book bound in leather. "Do you have the disk?" she asked.

"Right here," Drake pulled a small floppy disk out from his pocket. "Hey listen, you remember about a five months ago when you fought that weird guy who split the water and junk?" he asked.

"Yes, his name was Genjo, he was an I-Jin. Why?"

"I saw this guy who looked just like him when I came out of the pipe," Drake managed to spit out right as a helicopter came hovering down next to them. They sat down and Yomiko immediately opened up the old book and began reading it. Drake sighed as he leaned back rested his head on the back of the seat.

They arrived at headquarters after about an hour, and Drake had to take the book from Yomiko to get her attention. She followed behind him, trying to grab the book as they walked into the building. He finally gave it back once they reached the elevator, and she began reading it once again as they descended down to the lower levels of the building.

"Welcome," Wendy greeted them as Drake stepped out of the elevator. Wendy leaned to glance over his shoulder at Yomiko, who was still reading, and when Drake realized this he reached back into the elevator and once again grabbed the book.

"Hey!" Yomiko pouted as she stepped out of the elevator to retrieve it. Drake slipped it into his pocket and followed Wendy down the hall to an office. Joker was inside, and he greeted them both as they entered.

"Do you have them?" Joker asked.

"Yep." Drake took the book and the floppy disk out of his pocket and plopped them down on the desk.

"Excellent, very good work indeed," Joker said as he examined the items. He flipped the book open to a random page and peered at it through a magnifying glass. "This is astonishing!" he exclaimed as he snapped the book shut. "Now, come with me to the lobby, I want you to meet your new partner."


	2. Enemies New and Old

As Yomiko, Drake, and Mr. Joker reached the lobby a young man about Yomiko's age was sitting on the couch with his eyes closed. "Ahem!" Joker coughed, gaining the attention of the man. He stood up and stared coldly at Yomiko and Drake. He was a tall man with broad shoulders, but he wasn't very intimidating. He had shaggy brown hair and he wore a strange outfit. He wore casual close with a brown leather jacket with the sleeves ripped off at the shoulder, and for some strange reason, he had plate mail style armor on his shoulders and forearms. "Allow me to introduce The Rail," Joker said to Yomiko and Drake.

"Hello," Rail said. His shoulder armor clanged as he stepped forward and extended his hand. Drake shook his hand, wondering why he was wearing armor.

"I'm Drake," he said coldly.

"And I'm Yomiko," Yomiko said shaking his hand. "What's your real name?" she asked.

"That information is classified," Rail answered.

"Yes well," Joker interrupted, "The Rail has been with this organization for quite some time now. He did work with another agent, The Avalanche, but he disappeared some time ago and we haven't heard from him since."

"I believe it was around the same time Miss Deep lost her memory. We've been trying tirelessly to locate him, but we've not come very far," Rail chimed in.

"Did it ever occur to you that he might be dead?" Drake asked.

"No, he's not dead," Rail answered coldly.

"But how could you know that for sure if you haven't seen or heard from him in five months?" Yomiko asked.

"Ahem!" Joker drew the attention back to himself. "The Avalanche was, in a matter of speaking, incapable of dying. That is why he was so valuable to the Library," he stated.

"What do you mean, incapable of dying?" Drake asked.

"Avalanche had the power of immortality, to some extent," Rail answered.

"Oh, so do you have a power too?" Yomiko asked.

"This," Rail said as he held out his right arm. The plate mail seemed to meld into his forearm, which made the top of his forearm, where the plate mail had once been, appear as if someone had splashed silver paint on it. Then three rows of spikes grew jaggedly out of the "paint". "It's really useful for guarding from attacks and for fighting at close range," he said.

"I'll say," Drake said staring at the large shiny spikes. He started to imagine the horrible damage they could cause in a fistfight, but was startled awake when the spikes retracted back into the "paint".

"Here, see what it's like," Rail said. Yomiko reached forward and placed a hand on the silver material.

"It's so cold!" she squealed as she pulled her hand away.

"It's like solid steel," Drake said, poking it. The silver steel "paint" then formed back to its original plate mail form, and Rail took it off.

"As you may have guessed, The Rail can meld with and manipulate any from of metal his skin touches," Joker said.

"Interesting..." Drake said, rubbing his chin.

"So, how long did you say you've been working here?" Yomiko asked.

"The Rail has worked here for ten years," Joker answered before Rail could even open his mouth. "Now that you're all aquatinted, it's time for your next mission."

"Are you kidding? We just got back from the last one!" Drake shouted.

"Well lucky for you, you won't be doing much. Only supplying backup if The Paper or The Rail requests it. All you have to do is sit in a helicopter and make sure nothing goes wrong," Joker said.

"Whatever," Drake sighed.

"So um, what will we be doing?" Yomiko asked.

"I'm glad you asked. You're going to investigate a riot in Edinburgh, Scotland. We believe the I-Jin may be involved," Joker said.

"But I thought all of the I-Jin were killed," Yomiko said.

"Apparently, a few I-Jin had been created and sent to the east so they were not killed during the...the mission," Joker said with an uneasy tone. "Now get going, it will be a long trip."

Drake, Yomiko, and Rail were silent for the entire trip, which lasted several hours. When the great Edinburgh castle came into view, the helicopter began to descend. They touched down on the opposite side of the large hill, where tourists didn't go. Yomiko and Rail checked their headpieces and jumped out of the plain. When they were a safe distance the helicopter ascended back into the air and flew off past the castle.

"Is the riot at the castle?" Yomiko asked.

"Let's go find out," Rail said as he removed the plate mail from his forearm and shaped it into a large metal platform. Yomiko caught on and made the same structure from some paper in her suitcase, and they rode the platforms as they flew up the hill. They reached the castle walls and jumped onto them from their platforms. Yomiko placed what paper she could save from the wind back in her suitcase, and Rail reattached the plate mail to his forearm.

They moved down the wall a ways until they came to a large tower. The tower was about five feet away from the wall, and the nearest window was about ten feet up. "Here, get on my shoulders," Rail said.

"Um, ok, I guess," Yomiko said uncertainly. He knelt down and made a step for her with his knee, and when she was on his shoulders he slowly stood up. He was nearly all the way up when Yomiko sneezed and nearly fell off. Rail managed to steady himself though, and when Yomiko was ready he hoisted her up into the window. A few seconds later Rail came climbing through the window dragging Yomiko's large suitcase behind him.

"How do you carry that thing around with you all day?" Rail asked as he staggered to his feet. Yomiko just smiled and took the suitcase.

They headed down the tower and went into the courtyard. Many tourists were pointing and taking pictures, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "Well I think it's safe to assume that nothing wrong's going on here," Yomiko smiled.

"Let's go," Rail said as he headed for the large castle gates. When they reached the gates they had a near panoramic view of the entire city, but still they saw nothing out of the ordinary. "This doesn't seem right," Rail said with a slightly worried tone.

Yomiko and Rail made their way down the gigantic set of stair leading down the hillside, and as they came closer to the city they began hearing the bustle of life and bagpipes being played. Almost as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs they heard an explosion, followed by screams and maniacal laughter.

"What do you think that could be!?" Yomiko asked amongst the crowd rushing past.

"I don't know!" Rail shouted back. The two agents struggled to make their way through the stampede of scared civilians, but the crowd was moving too fast and they got swept up in the current. Rail managed to make his way over to an alley and got out of the crowd, but when he looked to try and see Yomiko, he just barely caught sight of her before she was knocked over by a large man in a panic.

"Paper!" Rail yelled as he furiously began to shove people aside while he made his way over to her. And reached the area where she had fallen and gave a sigh of relief. Yomiko had quickly encased her self in a paper shell to protect her when she fell.

When the crowd finally died down a few seconds later Rail tapped on the shell, and it dispersed. Yomiko stood up and brushed the dirt of her skirt.

"Let's not do that again," She said.

"Yeah," Rail grunted.

"Hey, you guys alright down there?" Drake asked through the headset,"

"We're fine Drake, thanks," Yomiko responded. They rested for a moment to catch their breath, but an explosion just a few yards away knocked them flat on their backs. Coughing, they slowly rose and staggered over to the source of the disturbance.

"Who is that!?" Yomiko asked.

"Joker says it's and I-Jin," Drake said.

"Ghengis Kahn," Rail sneered.

Ghengis Kahn remained silent as he drew a stick of dynamite from his satchel. He lit it and threw right at Rail and Yomiko. Yomiko sealed it with a piece of paper, and Rail scooped it up and threw it right back at Ghengis. The dynamite exploded but Ghengis was unharmed because the paper adsorbed most of the attack.

"I'll take care of him!" Yomiko yelled as she drew some sheet of paper and threw them at Ghengis, but just when they were about to strike Ghengis the pieces of paper were incinerated by a powerful blast of fire. Yomiko looked to the source, and was horrified to see none other than Genjo looming above them on a rooftop.

"Do you know that guy?" Rail asked.

"Yeah, but he was killed five months ago," Yomiko said in shock.

"What's the matter bitch? You look as though you've seen a ghost!" Genjo laughed.

"Why you! Nobody calls me that and gets away with it!" Yomiko shouted. "Mr. Rail, you take care of Ghengis!"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't address me as Mr." Rail shouted back to her as she floated up to the rooftop to take on Genjo.

Yomiko reached the rooftop and launched some paper at him, but he either blocked or dodged all of them. "Sorry, but I don't have time to play games!" Genjo shouted as he launched a terrible assault. Yomiko just barely had enough time to pull out a piece of paper to use as a shield before he struck. She would have fought better but she was distracted with trying to think of how Genjo could possibly be alive and how he had retrieved his old weapons.

Before she knew it her paper was gone, and Genjo had struck her right in the stomach with his staff. She blacked out, and the last thing she remembered was falling from the rooftop.


	3. First Mission

"Paper!" Yomiko could just barely pick out from the darkness. "Miss Paper!" She heard again. Slowly she opened her eyes, and light flowed in flooding her vision. Slowly the light began to fade, and she began to see. First she saw a shadow, which slowly changed to Rail's face. She tried to sit up but her body felt like it was made of lead, and she could not. "Miss Paper, are you alright?" Rail asked.

"I think so...where...where are we?" Yomiko asked. She looked to her side and saw large green walls surrounding her on all sides.

"A dumpster," Rail said. Yomiko still couldn't move, but she heard the faint sound of gunfire in the background. Rail started to say something when the tip of a sword burst through his chest. Yomiko's fright allowed her to regain control of her body and she sat up quickly. She noticed that it was Ghengis Kahn who had stabbed Rail.

Ghengis Kahn laughed evilly, but stopped and stared in horror when Rail spoke, "It's bastards like you who always make my day so much livelier." Ghengis fell back on his rear end in awe when the blade of his sword was ripped out of the pommel and adsorbed into Rail's body. "Forgot to mention that metal can't kill me!" Rail yelled as he spun around on his heels to face Ghengis. The liquid iron flowed from his back to his hand as he shaped it into a gauntlet with spiked knuckles. "Help out Drake," Rail said to Yomiko as he stooped over Ghengis, ready to strike.

"What?" Yomiko asked. She looked over to her right and noticed that Drake was ducking under a dumpster further up the alley reloading his gun. She ran over to him just as he leaned back over the top of the dumpster and began firing again. "What's going on!?" Yomiko yelled, but she was drowned out by the sound of Drake's automatic rifle.

"What?" Drake asked as he crouched back down under cover.

"Who are you firing at!?" Yomiko asked.

"Some crazy guy with a stick and some kid with a bunch of guns and good aim!" Drake yelled.

"Sorry to interrupt!" Genjo said as he appeared over the top of the dumpster.

"Oh shit!" Drake yelled as he started firing wildly. Genjo gracefully leapt over Drake's head, landing behind him. He executed a spinning kick to Drake's back, sending him crashing face first into the side of the dumpster. Yomiko quickly drew some paper out of her pocket and formed it into a chain, which she wrapped around Genjo's ankle. She pulled hard, tripping him onto his back. She quickly threw the other end of the chain up to the railing of an over head fire escape and left Genjo dangling a few feet from the ground. He opened his mouth to breathe fire, but Yomiko was one step ahead of him and she covered his mouth and nose with a sheet of paper.

"That's some crafty work," Rail said as he came up next to her.

"What happened to Ghengis Kahn?" Yomiko asked.

"I don't think he'll be much of a problem," Rail pointed back down the alley. Yomiko looked to where he was pointing and saw Ghengis Kahn laying in the center of the alley with his sword impaled in his chest.

"You killed him," Yomiko stated.

"I've killed a lot of people," Rail said bluntly. "Duck!" he shouted suddenly as he pushed Yomiko down behind the safety of the dumpster. As soon as he had pushed her a hail of bullets pounded into him, knocking him hard to the ground.

"He'll be okay, metal can't hurt him," Yomiko thought aloud as she took some paper from her briefcase. She then sopped as she noticed Drake's motionless body. "Mr. Drake. Mr. Drake wake up!" Yomiko pushed him until he moaned and sat up.

"What the hell is goin' on?" Drake asked with a groan. That's when a second wave of bullets came crashing into the other end of the dumpster, shaking it and making a loud crackling noise. "Jesus!" Drake yelled as he remembered what was going on. He reloaded his rifle and began to return fire. A single bullet crashed into Drake's shoulder and he dropped to the ground.

"Are you ok!? Yomiko asked.

"Yeah, I think I'll be alright," Drake groaned, clutching his shoulder.

"Who is that?" Yomiko asked.

"Some punk called Jesse," Drake moaned.

"Jesse James," Rail said as he staggered behind the dumpster.

"What took you so long? Mr. Drake's been hurt!" Yomiko yelled.

"I said metal can't kill me, but it sure as hell hurts," Rail said as liquid metal from the adsorbed bullets dripped from his fingertips. "Here, this will hurt, but it's better for you," he said as he placed a hand over Drake's wound. He howled in pain as Rail sucked the bullet out of him.

"You idiot! What the hell do you think you were doing!?" Drake yelled.

"I just saved your life!" Rail yelled angrily.

"I would've been fine!" Drake replied.

"Stop fighting!" Yomiko yelled. Rail and Drake turned their backs from each other.

"We have to stop Jesse," Yomiko said.

"Can't, he's too fast to hit with bullets," Drake stated.

"So, don't use bullets then," Rail said.

"I would've thought of that!" Drake shouted. "...Smartass," he mumbled under his breath.

"I'll take care of him!" Yomiko said. She was about to jump out into the alley when Rail stopped her.

"Wait!" he whispered harshly. When the three of them were quiet they noticed that they couldn't here any noises down the alley. Rail took a piece of paper from Yomiko, folded it into a paper airplane, and threw it out into the alley. Almost as soon as it had left the dumpster's area of protection a flurry of bullets fired into the paper, ripping it to shreds.

"Whoa, he sure has an itchy trigger finger," Drake stated.

"We're gonna have to work together to take him down," Rail stated.

"I think I have an idea," said Yomiko. She whispered a plan to them, and they both approved of it. "Okay, on three. 1...2...3!" Yomiko yelled. Rail adsorbed his right forearm and shoulder armor and formed them into a large shield-like slab of metal. He bolted across the alley and knelt down by the opposite wall, drawing the fire away from Yomiko and Drake. Yomiko leapt atop the dumpster and threw a paper rope at Jesse, wrapping him up and immobilizing him. "Go Drake!," She shouted.

"Roger!" Drake shouted as he took aim and fired. The bullet barreled into Jesse's shoulder. "Damn it, I missed!" Drake scorned himself. As Drake was preparing to fire again a bullet grazed his cheek, cutting it. Drake just stared blankly in shock until a figure leapt over his head from behind. It was Genjo. He looked back at Yomiko and smiled as he ripped the paper from his mouth and breathed fire. "Look out!" Drake yelled as he tackled Yomiko out of the way.

The two of them braced themselves for another attack, but none came. They looked up and saw that Genjo and Rail were staring coldly at each other. Without another word Genjo slowly turned his back and walked away. Jesse followed behind him. "Are you just going to stand there and let them get away!?" Drake shouted.

"They're sparing us," Rail said emotionlessly. He turned silently and walked out of the alley, heading back towards the castle.

Back in Joker's office, none of them said a word. The awkward silence lasted for a few minutes before Joker spoke. "It has not yet been confirmed as to why the I-Jin were in Scotland, but I think it is clear that we need to do a more efficient job at defeating them. Team work is the key to our survival, which means that we cannot afford any more arguing. I cannot stress enough how important the three of you are to this organization, and people here look up to you all for support. If they find you arguing, they might start arguing with each other as well, which would cause chaos and quite possibly the end of this organization. That is all I have to say to you, so stand by until you're next assignment." Yomiko, Rail, and Drake silently stood up and walked out of the office.

Rail headed silently to the lounge, and when he got there he sat down and poured himself some coffee. He sat and sipped it for a while until Yomiko came in. "Oh, sorry. I didn't think anyone was in here," she said as she started to turn around.

"It's ok, you can stay. I don't mind," Rail said as he continued to sip his coffee.

"Alright," Yomiko said nervously as she sat down on the couch across from him. She stared at him in silence for a few minutes before she asked, "Did you know that I-Jin?"

"Who, Genjo?" Rail asked back.

"Yeah, Genjo," Yomiko said softly, remembering five months ago when he caused such terrible things.

"Yeah, I know him," he said in between sips.

"How?" Yomiko asked.

"He had a lot to do with my past," he said.

"Back when you worked with Mr. Avalanche?" she asked curiously.

"No, it was before that," he said.

"How long before?" she asked.

"Long," he answered.

"Oh," Yomiko said as she stared at the floor. "What-"Yomiko began to ask.

"Do you always ask so many questions?" Rail interrupted.

"Sorry," She apologized nervously.

"It's ok I guess. It's how people learn new things," Rail stated. "I used to be inquisitive like you...once," He said as he drifted into thought. There was an awkward silence until Rail stood up and wandered out of the lounge. When it occurred to Yomiko that he wasn't coming back she pulled a book out of her pocket and began reading.


End file.
